Work to start on new Mien Dong coach station this week

Ho Chi Minh City will officially start work on new Mien Dong (eastern) coach station in District 9 on Wednesday with the total investment capital of VND773 billion (US$34 million).

An artists’ impression of new Mien Dong coach station in District 9, HCMC

The new station in the city traffic development plan by 2020 approved ten years back is one of the most modern facilities and key projects of the city to restore traffic safety, tackle illegal operation of coaches and stations. Still site clearance and compensation have slowed construction until now.

The existing station will be removed to reduce traffic jams in Dinh Bo Linh street and surrounding areas, Binh Thanh.

The new station will be connected with the city’s first metro line Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien and bus routes to facilitate passengers’ travel from and to the center of the city.

Director general of Saigon Transportation Mechanical Corporation (Samco), investor of the project, Tang Thu Ly said that 12.3 hectares of the 16 hectare station will locate in District 9, HCMC and 3.7 hectares in Di An district, the neighboring province of Binh Duong.

The project comprises a square, where buses approach the station to pick up and drop off passengers, a four storey and two level basement station, a 26 storey hotel and a commercial center.

It is designed to serve 7 million passengers a year with about 1,200-1,800 bus trips departing from the station to transport 21,000-52,000 passengers a day.

The station item is expected to complete by the end of this year and officially open for service early next year.

Removal of the existing facility from Binh Thanh district will have two phases. The first phase is scheduled in the first quarter next year to serve vehicles plying in routes from HCMC to Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Ninh Thuan, Binh Thuan, Lam Dong and Dong Nai provinces and international routes.

The second phase scheduled in December next year will be for the remaining routes.

The old station will serve buses and other public transport means.

Synchronous connectivity

Being exciting to the future of the new station, Ms. Tang Thu Ly expressed concern about the connectivity between it and other works.

According to the plan, the first metro route will officially open to traffic in 2020 while the new coach station will come into operation in 2018, raising difficulties in transporting passengers to and from city downtown during two years.

In addition, there has no road linking the new station up to HCMC-Long Thanh-Dau Giay expressway. Therefore, vehicles from the southeastern, central and northern regions and the Central Highlands will have to make a ten kilometer detour to reach the new station.

That might not encourage transport firms to enter the new station, causing operation of illegal stations and coaches which is still rampant in some areas inner the city.

According to experts, the city needs to build an approach road from the expressway to the station, organize bus routes to inner the city and crack down on illegal stations and coaches to improve the efficiency of the new station.